The Data Management Project for Week 2 builds upon what you did for the Data Management Project in Week 1. Create a conceptual data model of data management project showing the entities and relationsh

DATABASE MANAGEMENT PROJECT 4

Database Management Project

Data Management

Database Management Project

The database to be created will relate to tuition payments by college students. The students are taking different courses, and each course is charged differently. There are also additional charges for specific courses that may be levied. The value of the database is to help the finance office determine the students who have paid, and those who either have not paid or not paid specific payments. The database will also help to determine amounts collected per day, and per term. That way, follow-ups on those who have not paid can be made effectively. Planning for different courses can also be made.

There are different constraints that apply to this database. First are the primary constraints that have to be unique for all the values. That way, it eliminates the potential for mixing up entries. In this case, students will have unique admission numbers. No two students share these numbers. Secondly is that each course will have a unique code. No two courses share the same code. The other constraint is the foreign key constraints. These help to ‘lookup’ values and hence ensure the integrity of the entries. For instance, a student number should only appear under a specific course he or she is undertaking. Therefore, when that number is entered, it ‘calls’ the specific course for which the student is enrolled. The third is domain constraint that determines the domains to be used. Here, there shall be domains for student’s number, student name, and amount. All payments made shall be entered in the domains.

There are several objectives to be accomplished. This includes the need to ensure accurate records are being maintained to track the payments of the students. Hence, the invoices served to the students shall be accurate. Besides, the database should enable effective follow-up on payments by the students for various courses. Hence, collection of outstanding payments. The debt collection shall be made effective because only those who have not paid will receive reminders to make payments before the deadlines. Moreover, the database will help to track down payments and manage the cash. Hence, required supplies can be bought in good time, and in a way that avoids cash flow challenges.

The scope of the project shall be limited to the financial aspect of the students in the college. Therefore, the database is designed to capture all the payments made by the students related to various activities. This includes admissions, tuition, equipment, books, and library fees among others. Therefore, for each student, the finance officer should be able to see all the payments due, and whether they have been made or are still outstanding. This can also be aggregated so that totals for each class and course can be seen and used for planning.

The boundaries of the database will include the budget for the project, which is about $10,000. The project should be designed to run on the existing system. Hence, it should not require a distinct operating system or additional investments in software. The personal seconded to complete the development of the database are the existing IT department. They have done several such projects in the past and should be able to complete this one. Therefore, there is no room for involving external experts. The project is also not likely to gain additional funding from the school.